Home health care products can include equipment and assistive devices for assisting invalid and/or aging persons in completing necessary tasks to go through everyday life. Non-limiting examples of home health care products include wheelchairs, oxygen concentrators, walkers, safety rails, gripping devices, blood pressure monitors, pill dispensers and the like. Often the home health care products are designed to prevent falls by the user, thereby improving the safety of the user and reducing the incidence of injury.
Another example of a home health care product that is used by invalid and/or aging persons is a shower bench seat (also commonly called a transfer bench). A shower bench seat is configured to allow a user to be positioned in a sitting orientation while taking a shower. In certain instances, the area comprising the shower can be defined, in part, by a bathtub. Typically, a shower bench seat includes a seating structure that is supported by legs disposed on both the inside and outside of shower (or legs disposed on both the inside and outside of the bathtub. This shower bench seat structure allows a user to initially sit down on the bench on the outside of the shower (bathtub), lift his or her legs over the edge of the shower (bathtub) while remaining in a seated orientation on the shower bench, and then slide himself or herself along the seat of the shower bench into the shower (bathtub). This shower bench seat structure improves the safety of the user as the user does not need to raise his or her legs while in a standing orientation in order to step over the edge of the shower (bathtub) to get into the shower (bathtub).
The shower (bathtub) can include a shower curtain, configured to retain water within the shower (bathtub). In certain instances where a shower bench seat is used, the shower curtain may not be able to retain water within the shower (bathtub) as the shower bench may not be configured for passage of the shower curtain below the bottom of the seat. As a result, the water within the shower (bathtub) can flow from the shower and onto the floor on the outside of the shower (bathtub), thereby creating a potential slipping hazard.
It would be advantageous if shower bench seats for showers could be improved to make them more convenient to use.